


Alternative Realities

by NinaFujisaki



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 11:51:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16953492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinaFujisaki/pseuds/NinaFujisaki
Summary: Some things are usual to Peter McClain. Like, his parents being married and happy; the same to Keith and Allura, king and queen of New Altea; and that their daughter, Michelle, was the coolest girl in the whole universe.These were just a few facts in Peter's, things that he took for granted, which were part of his reality.However, he was no longer in his reality.After an accident, Peter will end at a reality where his father is married to someone else, he barely recognizes his mother and his best friend doesn't exist.All he wants is to go home, but keeping his identity a secret while trying to convince that other version of his family to help him will not be easy.





	Alternative Realities

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my goodness I'm really posting my first fic! My first Plance fic!

"We've just seen Arus. Estimated time of arrival: twelve minutes.” Lance called from behind the red lion's controls. A mischievous smile appearing on his lips before his grip tightened on the controls. “Maybe less.”

With a tug, the Red Lion was thrown miles ahead in a matter of a seconds. Lance suffered no effect, but a muffled scream and the sound of something facing the other side of the cabin indicated that it wasn’t the case to his passenger. He couldn’t help a smile, but luckily he held back a laugh when he felt a presence behind him.

"Was that really necessary?” Asked Pidge, who, although wearing her paladin armor, wasn’t wearing her helmet, which at least allowed her to rub the place of the blow on her head. Her ponytail on the other hand would need to be redone.

"If you were holding on tight, you wouldn’t have fallen." He said, still laughing.  
"I was busy, you know!" Pidge huffed. "That control needed to be ready before we got to New Altea. I could have done this on Earth and come in Green by myself afterwards, but _some_ people wanted to have a family vacation.”

"Oh, don’t say you don’t enjoy us coming along." Lance raised an eyebrow at her, playfully. His tone continued on a little more serious; "Leaving today was the only way for Peter to come, since he only has two more weeks of break left, and you know how much he likes to go there.”

Pidge decided not to respond, not wanting to admit that he was right, so she just looked to other places as she adjusted her ponytail. Peter loved New Altea, there was no doubt about that. From the planet being so different compared to Earth, to his family and friends who lived there, there was always something for him to do. Regardless, it’d do everyone some good to catch up.

Besides, as soon as she, Allura, and Coran sorted out everything they needed on the machine, there still might be some time left for Pidge to relax with her family. Maybe the three of them could do a picnic, or try to complete all the circuits in the new Mario Kart together. The thought of that made her smile.

Too bad a glance back was enough for that little joy to fade away.

“Peter!”

“What? Nothing!” The eleven-year-old boy jumped in shock, quickly moving away from the device as much as he could. "I did nothing! Or didn’t touch anything, I swear!"

Pidge took a deep breath, trying not to exalt herself as she walked toward her son. Already facing the boy, she adjusted the large round glasses on his face, making him look at her.

"Peter," She said again, more calmly. "I told you, didn’t I?" To not-"

"-Not touch your stuff, I know.” The familiar brown eyes mirrored her own, but the adorable pout was totally from Lance, and Pidge was unable to resist any of them when they did that. "I was just trying to help you, Mom.”

Those words plus the pouting ended up warming Pidge's heart. It wasn’t uncommon for Peter to stand beside her and give her a hand in some projects for the Garrison, just like Sam had done for her when she was little. A moment that was once father and daughter had now become a mother and son moment, and Pidge valued it as much as she knew Peter did.

But as his father used to tell her, some experiments were too dangerous for a child to be around, and Pidge needed only to remember the machine that awaited them in New Altea to know that this was one of the cases.

She caressed his dark brown hair tenderly, looking once more at those eyes so alike her own. If something happened to him, she would never be able to forgive herself.

"Pe-Woh!”

A jolt from the Red Lion interrupted her, hurling Peter forward and leaving Pidge to hold him before the two of them ended on the ground.

“Lance!” She complained, turning to her husband.

"My bad," he said just as he adjusted the controls. "I always forget these adjustments so it won’t bump into the atmosphere."

“Are we there already?" That was the only point that interested Peter.

With a quick run, he was leaning over Red's control panel. A huge grin appeared on his face as he saw the castle of New Altea miles ahead, glowing in the late afternoon light.

There were several spaces in the extensive gardens of the castle where the Lion would be able to land, but a bright red signal flickering on the floor of the large terrace indicated Lance the exact place for landing.  
From the terrace, seven figures watched as the feline giant's paws found the ground.

“Hey!” Peter screamed, barely waiting for the lion's mouth to open fully to rush to meet the others.

“Peter!" A little girl was the first to respond.

She held the older boy's hand beside her, with the same dark skin and pointed ears as hers, before running toward his friend, her black hair swinging with the wind.

The three children met in front of the Lion.

"I'm glad you came," said the little girl, seeming to hold onto some composure and not hug him, though the huge smile didn’t leave her face. “We missed you. Both of us. Even if Alfy doesn’t admit it.”

"You didn’t have to drag me, Michelle." The older boy, Alfor, complained to his sister, but he smiled a little as he looked at Peter. “Good to see you.”

Peter laughed lightly. "It's good to see you too, guys.”

Pidge and Lance soon left the Lion behind Peter.

“Guys!” And Hunk did not wait a second to rush past them and take one in each arm, giving a strong group hug. "I've missed you both so much!"

"We missed you too, big man." Lance smiled at his friend despite the discomfort of having his lungs crushed.

Not that they had been so long without seeing each other. After Shiro, who worked alongside the garrison with ATLAS, Hunk was the only teammate living closest from them, with his and Shay's restaurant being a few miles away from the town where the McClain family lived. Still, no one could blame Hunk for missing his best friends and vice versa.

“- Hunk – can’t... breathe... –“ Pidge's face was turning blue when Hunk finally released them.

A light touch on her shoulder made her turn around.

"I promise I will not crush you," Matt said before embracing his sister, who matched the gesture fondly.

They were full of reasons to miss each other, once Matt now worked and lived in New Altea with Romelle since their marriage.

As the siblings parted, Allura, Keith, and Coran approached. The reunion was good, though brief, as soon as Allura turned to Pidge, her tone rather serious.

"How were the polls? Have the submitted pieces been enough?”

"Of course they were, Your Majesty! I selected them myself and separated them appropriately," said Coran, petting his mustache.

"It was all right, Allura," Pidge reported. “Most of them are ready, but some adjustments are still missing.”

"And you managed to find out something over-”

"There's not a good place to talk about it," Keith interrupted his wife, putting a hand on her shoulder as he looked suspiciously sideways.

Allura laid a hand over Keith's, sighing to contain her agitation.

“You're right.” She glanced at Pidge once more. "Come on, Coran, Matt and I are going to show you where it is."

"Does that mean I'm not invited then?" Lance said, somewhat disappointed to be left out.

"Not only you," Keith said, looking down at the floor and arms folded; his tone barely hiding that he was as upset as Lance for the exclusion.

Apparently, more than twenty years as king hadn’t changed him much, though his hair was now longer and tied in a ponytail.

“I’m sorry,” Allura looked with sincere regret at Keith. "But the project must be kept secret. It would be very suspicious if both king and queen disappeared at once.” She turned to Lance. "And it's good that at least one of the Paladins is also in sight."

“OK,” Lance nodded, even if not so concerned "But what am I going to do all day then?"

"I know you'll find something," Pidge assured him. "You can play with Peter, maybe?"

"Speaking of him, where are the children?" It was Matt who noticed.

Peter, Alfor, and Michelle, who were there with them a minute ago, were already out of sight. An engine noise from inside the castle caught their attention and it was quick to decipher that the exited screams that accompanied it were of the three children.

"Oh no, I already told them not to ride a motoboard inside,” Allura sighed tiredly.

“Let me take care of them,” Keith volunteered, receiving a smile from his wife in gratitude before entering the door that led to the Lions' hangar and, consequently, into the castles.

“Look, you've got something to do” Pidge slapped Lance on the shoulder. "Put Red in and go help Keith with the kids."

"I'd rather help the kids," Lance murmured to himself. “All right, I will,” But he agreed. Suddenly, he hugged Pidge with one arm around her waist, pulling her a little closer. "And you take care of yourself."

"You relax, we're not going to blow everything up," she teased before lifting herself up slightly to reach his lips.

Just a light kiss before they split up.

“Can I get some help here?” Hunk asked, interrupting his friends' moment as he tried to drag the two-ton control that Pidge was building out of the Red Lion.

The piece was already properly covered with a large cloth to prevent it from being seen.  
Matt was quick to help him and as soon as the charge left his Lion, it was Lance's turn to save Red.

"Come on," Allura called out as the hangar door closed. No other word was said by anyone as they walked down the aisles of the castle.

From the terrace, Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Coran and Matt had a long way to the bottom floor of the building, the castle area with denied access to anyone who didn’t have a special royal scientist or engineer card. Until recently, that was only a deposit, but after the finding a few months ago, when Allura contacted Pidge and Hunk with urgency, the place was as protected as the treasures of the kingdom.

“Here,” Allura handed Pidge a green card with some code written on it, just like the one Coran was using to open the heavy white door with a warning of danger. "Keep it hidden all the time."

Pidge just nodded. The five people then turned to the door slowly opening, revealing the machinery inside: a large, metal circle, with some pillars strategically positioned to form the design of an eight-pointed star.  
The machine that had empowered Zarkon for so many millennia, which Haggar used to give him power, the machine that controlled the old portal to the quinquennial camp at Daibazzal. It was right there in front of them.

"It's to put on the other side, Hunk," Pidge instructed, seeing his friend and brother positioning the piece Pidge had brought into the main pillar of the structure.

“Ready,” Matt wiped his sweaty forehead, thankful to finally drop it. "Now we just need to reconnect it right and it will be ready to use." He glanced around, scowling at the other pillars. "Though I think we'd need more alchemists to make this thing work."

"Or maybe ..." Allura walked towards the pillar; her face was serious and she seemed to ramble. "We would need only a very powerful alchemist." She held out a hand, ready to touch the panel.

Allura had felt a no good sensation when they had first found the machine, and when brought to the castle, it only confirmed that the feeling came from the machine itself. It was all negative energy that made Allura shiver, but once she got used to the sensation, the machine seemed to call her, to pull her.

And Allura only felt the urge to bind her and use it.

“Your Majesty!” Coran pulled her back slightly, waking her from her torpor..

"Are you sure you should be here again?" It was Hunk who asked, worried. “That thing makes you look weird.”

"I'm fine," she assured him. “I need to stay, it was my idea to go back to this thing and now with what Pidge discovered...”

"Speaking of that, are you sure that's even possible?"

“Yes!” The two women said with conviction.

“With the adjustments I've been sending to Allura and the information she's giving me about altean alchemy, my numbers indicate that there’s only a two percent margin of errors not to happen the function proposed by the machine updates.” Pidge explained with her usual familiar air, just not adjusting her old glasses because these were now used by her son. As soon as she finished however, her face became serious. "The point is: do we really want it to work?"

The question may have been for everyone in the room, but her brown eyes focused on Allura.

When she had found the wreckage, the queen didn’t know what to do with it at first, so she brought only that dangerous technology, the last remnant of the war, as far as they knew, to the safest place she could imagine. Over time, however, and some joint investigations from her and Pidge, the two girls discovered a function for that machine that perhaps Haggar herself might not have found possible: opening passages to other realities.

But no one knew if it would work, whether it would be possible to modify the machine properly and what would happen once it was possible to open a portal from one reality to another. So since then the operation was kept secret, no one besides the Paladins and Matt knew nothing.

Allura looked indecisive, or at least thoughtful, for a moment, but determination soon reappeared in her blue eyes.

"The technology can be useful in some way, we cannot give up on something like this,” She turned to Hunk and Matt. "We're going to reconnect control to the main panel, and we'll do a test tomorrow. Depending on what happens... "She paused, as if it were difficult for her to utter those words. “We'll destroy the machine.”

The others looked at each other, everybody sort of worried about the queen's hesitation to destroy something that had helped the universe to suffer for ages, but in the end no one decided to comment.

"Very well then," Pidge sighed. "Hunk, where are your tools? We need to reconnect this as soon as possible,” she commanded.

While Hunk and the Holt siblings were concentrated on the panel, Coran laid a hand on Allura's shoulder.

"Come on, your majesty, I'll make you some tea," he said gently, leading her out of the room.

“Wh-what?!” The queen was surprised. “But shouldn’t I stay to follow the-“

“No, everything’s alright, the project is in the best possible hands.” With that last laughing argument, Allura, still a little hesitant, let Coran guide her out.

Realizing that the queen wouldn’t notice, Coran glanced quickly backward before the white door closed; an unpleasant shiver running down his spine.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Five hours have passed since then. The night had already fallen, Pidge, Matt, and Hunk had finished their work for now, and now everyone in the castle was getting ready to go to the dining room, where a fantastic meal had been set on the table to commemorate the gathering of all five paladins (and secretly, the project completion).

"You think this dress looks good?" Michelle asked her brother as they walked down the aisles, the girl adjusting the skirt of the long blue dress, very alike the one Allura used to wear, but in a childish size.

"I don’t know why it wouldn’t be.” Alfor shrugged. He wore a red colored clothe with golden details typical of a noble Altean, but he didn’t looks as interested on it as his sister. "By the way, why are you so worried about it?" A smirk. “Is it just because Peter’s here?”

"Don’t be silly,” Michelle rolled her eyes, as if that wasn’t the first time her brother had intruded on such a joke.

But when Michelle looked away, he stood out of nowhere, her eyes on the boy in the other hallway who was making signs to get her attention, calling her.

"Er... Alfy, I remembered that... I forgot something in my room.” She didn’t wait for an answer, already running back into the hall where Peter had been hiding. “Tell Mom and Daddy I'll be there in a minute!”

“... If you had to go to the bathroom, you just had to say it.” Alfor murmured to himself, continuing his way into the hall.

As soon as she stepped into the hall, Michelle found Peter biting his lip and barely holding himself from excitement. He was wearing his old red windbreaker over what looked like a brand-new black shirt.

“What's it about?” She asked.

“Look what I found,” From his rolled-up coat pocket, Peter pulled out a green card with some code written on it.

Michelle didn’t get it.

"I bet this has something to do with the thing our parents are doing, it was in my mother's safe!"

"And why are you touching your mother's safe?" Michelle asked, genuinely curious and already feeling sorry for her friend when her Aunt Pidge discovered he had been snooping.

"I thought she'd put my video game in there." Peter shrugged. "But that's not important right now. What matters is that we can see such machine!" The boy's eyes looked like two stars of their own. "You told me you knew where it was, didn’t you?"

"Yeah... sort of"

“What do you mean with sort of?”

"I've noticed that my mother has been going down a lot at the castle deposit lately, I'm pretty sure the thing is there, but I don’t know one hundred percent because I've never been after her or alone to try and spy, because I know my mother and I don’t want to die.” That last sentence was a big hint to Peter.

That the boy pretended he didn’t understand.

“Well, now we can go there to investigate.” He waved the card on her friend's face again. "Come on, tell me you're not even a bit curious."

Michelle bit her lower lip uncertainly. On the one hand, she was curious, but on the other hand she knew her limits, and surely something her mother had decreed as national security was beyond them.

... But they already had the access card.

"Okay, but we’re not going to touch anything.”

“Deal,” Peter smiled.

The two of them went down the emergency stairs, which made them take a few minutes longer than planned, but it was the only way through the castle without any security camera and this (for Peter, who had Pidge as mother) was a necessary point for him to keep getting into mischief.

The two children let out a "wow" as they glimpsed at the heavy white door, but despite the amazement, none of them were intimidated by the warning of danger, Peter quickly using the card on the side panel to open the door. Another chorus of "wow" when they spotted the machine.

Peter ran inside, fascinated by that structure and so eager to see it closer that he didn’t even notice Michelle's hesitation. The girl shrank to the door, as if she was cold. What a strange feeling...

“Cool! look at this, Michelle. This technology seems to be older than the Arus civilization, and it’s in perfect condition!” Peter was amazed, to say the least. Looking around, he put his hands on his hips. "What about those pillars? What were they for? Was it some kind of machine to extract energy or something.”

He stopped to talk when he noticed Michelle walking slowly, almost hypnotized, to the center pillar.

"Hey, Elle, don’t touching, remember? That was your rule.”

She didn’t seem to listen. Already facing the panel, she raised her left hand.

“Elle? Michelle!”

Peter tried to run at her, but as soon as Michelle's palm touched the piece, a purple light shone brightly, threads of the same color seeming to send energy to the whole structure. Some sounds rumbled through the room; the machine was working.

"Mi-!"

Peter was not able to stop her in time as the ground around the circle suddenly lit up in a white light and then all he could feel, was the feeling of being pulled into a hole.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for read untill here, I hope you like it and that you got a good time :)  
> Thanks, also, Mads for beta this first chapter <3


End file.
